I sent the following email to the members of the Online Learning Task Force established by SB 767 on 10/19/09.
Dear Members of the Online Learning Task Force,
I am
writing to you as a member of the Online Learning Task Force established by SB
767. I note that you shall “prepare a report that must address,” among other
issues, “(O) Any other topic concerning the provision of high-quality online
instruction to students in this state and the accessibility of online
instruction by students attending public schools in this state.”
For
reasons of national security and economic development, Oregon students need
access to critical foreign language programs online. It is your responsibility,
in my humble opinion, to bring forth proposals that would give them improved
access to such programs statewide.
National
security: The US is now engaged in significant conflicts in the Middle East and
Central Asia. These are likely to continue in some form or other for years.
Both our military and reconstruction efforts have been handicapped by the
limited foreign language and cultural knowledge of our personnel. In our
efforts to counter Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, we need more personnel
knowledgeable of the languages and cultures of countries stretching from
Indonesia to Morocco. And especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the
near term conflict will be most intense, we need more personnel fluent in the
languages of Afghan-Pakistan region. You can help (and, please, consider what
not helping means).
We
are not going to have classes in these languages in our public schools. But we
can give access for those few students who want to serve their country to
online courses in these languages. We can, for example, offer Pashto (through
Rosetta Stone) to a student who wants to become a Marine and fight in
Afghanistan.
Economic
development: The most significant opportunity Oregon has for economic growth in
the decades ahead is to grow our international trade sector. Emerging economies
in the next decades are forecast to have 80% of global growth. China alone is
forecast to have an economy as large as the US economy in 2035 and twice as
large in 2050. To seize these opportunities, Oregon should adapt its
educational system to teach the languages of these markets and to send its high
school students abroad to study in them. We should do this because that is
where the money will be.
Some
local school districts may be able to offer some of these emerging market
languages as classes (like Mandarin, for example). But many districts will not.
So, again, we can give access to students statewide to courses in these
languages through online courses.
Online
courses will not produce students fluent in foreign languages. For some, even
in languages not currently taught in our public schools, we could also provide
(as in pay for) a high school year abroad. HB 2719 from the 2009 session would
have permitted local school districts to pay for study abroad program provided
by organizations like AFS, ASSE and CIEE. We could create (and I think it is
your responsibility to do so) an educational system that permits even a student
in the smallest, most remote school district, for examples, to study Arabic
online and then spend a high school year in Egypt, or to study Indonesian
online and then spend a high school year in Indonesia, or Mandarin online and
then a year in China.
I
urge you to bring forth proposals for improved online access statewide to a
wide variety of foreign language courses. If you want ideas about how to do it,
let me know.
Thank
you.
Sincerely
– Dave Porter
PS:
Rosetta Stone, for example, has online or software courses for 31 languages.
See <a href=http://www.rosettastone.com/homeschool/buynow>here</a>.
PPS:
The Florida Virtual School offers two Mandarin courses (plus Spanish and Latin)
for out-of-state students. See<a href= http://www.flvs.net/areas/flvscourses/Pages/Course%20Catalog/CourseListing-OutofState.aspx>here</a>.
PPS:
Info on the Go Global High School Study Abroad Program proposal is <a href=http://daveporter.typepad.com/dave_porter_weblog/2008/03/high-school-stu.html>here</a>.
A draft of the final legislative proposal is <a href=http://daveporter.typepad.com/dave_porter_weblog/2009/04/oregons-go-global-high-school-study-abroad-program-legislative-proposal.html>here.</a>
PPPS:
The current national list of “critical need languages” includes: Arabic,
Azeri (Azerbiajan), Bengali (Bangladesh and part of India), Chinese (Mandarin
only), Farsi (Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan), Gujarati (state of Gujarat in
India), Hindi (northern and central India), Korean, Marathi (western India),
Pashto (parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan), Punjabi (parts of India and
Pakistan), Russian, Tajik (Tajikistan and parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Uzbekistan and China), Turkish, Urdu (Pakistan, similar to Hindi), and Uzbek
(Uzbekistan)..
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